Jonathan Richman
FameRank: 6

"Jonathan Michael Richman" is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970 he founded The Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key, generally acoustic, backing. He is known for his wide-eyed, unaffected and childlike outlook, and music that, while rooted in rock and roll, often draws on influences from around the world.

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We rehearsed in the same place as Curt, so we saw him all the time and everything, but he wasn't in the band. It started out with just John Felice and me. I wrote to John from Israel saying I wanted to start a band when I got back home.

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Well, you know it was so different from when you rehearsed. You're out there with your guitar and trying to get a sound, but it doesn't sound anything like what you expect!

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We slept in Central Park, which is no mean feat- we got there and it was almost dawn when we went to sleep.

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I don't do any songs that I'm sick of now - sometimes even songs that I request. If I'm sick of 'em I don't do 'em even for myself.

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If it was a five year-old asking me to do "Road Runner" I would have done it easy. But the same people who asked for "Road Runner" asked for "Pablo Picasso", they all had these sort of arty voices.

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I visited Lou Reed in New York a few times before I went away. I visited them a few times when I was still living at home- took the train down. I hung out with the Velvet Underground a bit, slept on their manager's couch but it was Steve Selznick not Danny Fields.

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When there's things to do not because you gotta.

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They played Boston. They played at the Boston Tea Party and through an amazing chain of events I got to hang out with them backstage even though I was underage.

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Sometimes it works. Sometimes I feel like playing "Hospital". Sometimes I feel like playing "Pablo Picasso". I've been playing a lot lately. I do it as long as I feel like it.

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